About the album 'Catch 22'

para ler em português -https://cantodassereiascontentor.blogspot.com/2022/12/sobre-o-album-catch-22.html

'Catch 22' began to be cooked in May 2022, shortly after the release of the LP 'Ciclo Curvo'. It was supposed to be an EP sung in English. It started with just two songs: "I Did It Again" and "My City". Eventually, it went from EP to LP, as more themes appeared. I will describe below how the creation process was developed, in the order in which the themes emerged.

To listen to the whole album: https://contentor.bandcamp.com/album/catch-22

"I Did It Again" evokes a recurring error, but one that opens other doors, and by opening doors it ceases to be such a mistake, it can even become advantageous on several levels. The idea develops: surrounded by lies, big and small, we still look for truths, even where they don't exist, and in the end there's always something to take advantage of, something is always gained, even if it's just wisdom. This is how mistakes are blurred (faded), it comes to mind that none of this is easy to understand.

To listen: https://contentor.bandcamp.com/track/i-did-it-again

I Did It Again

As for "My City", the theme ended up not finding lyrics that would fit the song, it was like "na-na-na-na-na-na... my city - na-na-na-na-na -na... my city" - so I went looking in the tangle of the web, by association I looked for "Lisboa", my city, and I was trapped in this poem by the famous pseudonym of Fernando Pessoa, Álvaro Campos, due to the sound of the motto: " Lisbon with its houses of different colors". To listen: https://contentor.bandcamp.com/track/lisboa

Lisboa

The music for "Starting Over" was born from a cover we made of the theme 'By this river' (Brian Eno), which we later abandoned, but I took advantage of some notes of that theme to sing a new melody to it, and the poem appeared in English, more by the sound of the rhymes, everything revolves around starting over, even if you have to travel far away, abandon dreams, create new ones, in short... the message is: no matter what happens, I'll find a way to always be starting over.

To listen: https://contentor.bandcamp.com/track/starting-over

Starting Over

At the time, this theme was supposed to complete the EP: there was already a theme in Portuguese, so there were two in English and two in Portuguese - as is known, in the end there were five in each language. In a minute you do a lot, you think even more, you can feel even more. You can hold your breath. The image suggests a speed swimmer doing just that. In a minute, conclusions can be drawn about an entire life, an entire being - matters of intention are addressed here, those rapidities of which intuitions are made... and prejudices too - do we know how to distinguish between them?

To listen: https://contentor.bandcamp.com/track/num-minuto

Num Minuto

I was reading a book that my daughter gave me, about the history of the book (The Infinite in a reed' - Irene Vallejo), where the first writings that came to us from antiquity are described, and one of the author's discoveries was an anonymous poem that went something like this: 'things that are beautiful in any part of the world, things that make everyone uncomfortable, things that are brief, things that I like in particular', etc. - I loved the idea, I took it, called it mine and developed it as far as I could and knew how, in this "Things & Things".

To listen: https://contentor.bandcamp.com/track/coisas-coisas

Coisas & Coisas

The following theme was written and recorded during the summer holidays, spending a few days away from home, but with an inner feeling of being at home, the theme is only perceptible to those fatally in love with the divine being that inhabits them gently, also in love with their own ability to feel that way, which makes them feel at home, night and day, and fortunate for that. For some, an egocentric madness. For others, a devotional song.

I hesitated to incorporate this theme into the album, but it was well received by the band, and from here on 'Catch 22' was no longer an EP, we were going for the LP.

To listen: https://contentor.bandcamp.com/track/just-be

Just Be

Something we all agree on, come the good stuff! Happiness, friendship, wealth, welcome! For me and for you. Returning to the reflection on the previous topic ('Just Be'), even on such a consensual subject, there are those who consider this attitude to be abusive, selfish, excessive... not me. 

Note: part of the lyrics came up in conversation with a plant, at the time in a vase, a banana tree on my balcony... I was telling it that I was going to take care of it, protect it in the winter, those things you say to plants when they are transplanted, that you are going to take them to a garden, etc. - so far I've kept my word.

To listen: https://contentor.bandcamp.com/track/come-riches

Come Riches

"Going Home" - as the image suggests - sometimes imposes a scenario of obstacles on the way. But the theme is happy, the landscape is bucolic, perhaps the path follows a stream that runs around mountains, we go through the shade, no climbing. There is a certain lack of fit with reality, and once again, as expressed above ('Just Be'), that doesn't worry us, we're going home and as such we're already home; an allusion to Goethe, 'I built my house on nothing, that's why the whole world is mine'.

To listen: https://contentor.bandcamp.com/track/going-home

Going Home

I was reading a book written by a well-known journalist, 'Beware of the dog', I didn't like the choice of title but I liked the book. Towards the end, reading a dialogue between the two heroine twins in the book, Adriana and Luciana, when one of them says 'I wish I could write a song', I remember thinking to myself: 'why not? ' - and thus the theme was born, the first version had more than six minutes, with all the dialogue, then Mariana came to cut and cut until we reached the most politically correct time of four minutes, there was no longer room for the sentence where one of them says 'I wish I could write a song', but the essence of the mental dialogue between the twins remained - yes, the dialogue takes place mentally, during an embrace, after a prolonged absence; I read it, reread it and said to myself, 'this deserves a song'.

To listen: https://contentor.bandcamp.com/track/g-meas

Gemeas

I've been collaborating with Miguel (Michael Noise) as a lyricist on the last few albums, and since this one didn't have any lyrics by him, I asked him for lyrics for the theme "The other"; I already had the song hummed, and it didn't take even a day to fit the lyrics to it. But the band censored it, it seems like "after all, there was another one", and what not, until Mariana suggested keeping everything and replacing "the other" with "then", and thus the motto came up, "then it's me now", instead of "the other is me now" - and all the lyrics fit perfectly. That is, we say "it's my turn", the rest are details.

To listen: https://contentor.bandcamp.com/track/ent-o-agora-sou-eu

Então Agora Sou Eu

We had already been close to doing a 'cover' of this Beatles song, this time Carlos showed up at a rehearsal playing Paul McCartney's guitar, we packaged and built the theme. And it was not at all trivial, for the first time in history, as far as I know, this theme had the bars straightened out, instead of 7.5 bars in this part plus 2.5 in that part, etc. Then there was the issue of the key, in the original in G, but that was possible only if Mariana sang in falsetto, and that she did - but there is no falsetto that can handle that part that goes "into the light of the dark black night" (motto well portrayed in the image shown below), so we had to modify that line, in terms of time, to get the bars right and in terms of the melody of the voice, which was adapted, and thus we arrived at this version.

To listen: https://contentor.bandcamp.com/track/blackbird

Blackbird